Page:Henry VI Part 2 (1923) Yale.djvu/88

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And bear the name and port of gentlemen?

Cut both the villains' throats! for die you shall:

The lives of those which we have lost in fight

Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum!

1. Gent. I'll give it, sir; and therefore spare my life.

2. Gent. And so will I, and write home for it straight.

Whit. I lost mine eye in laying the prize aboard,

[To Suffolk.] And therefore to revenge it shalt thou die;

And so should these if I might have my will.

Lieu. Be not so rash: take ransom; let him live.

Suf. Look on my George; I am a gentleman:

Rate me at what thou wilt, thou shalt be paid.

Whit. And so am I; my name is Walter Whitmore.

How now! why start'st thou? what! doth death affright?

Suf. Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death.

A cunning man did calculate my birth,

And told me that by Water I should die:

Yet let not this make thee be bloody-minded;

Thy name is Gaultier, being rightly sounded.

Whit. Gaultier, or Walter, which it is I care not.

Never yet did base dishonour blur our name

But with our sword we wip'd away the blot:

Therefore, when merchant-like I sell revenge,

Broke be my sword, my arms torn and defac'd,

And I proclaim'd a coward through the world!

Suf. Stay, Whitmore; for thy prisoner is a prince,

The Duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole.

Whit. The Duke of Suffolk muffled up in rags!

 19 port: demeanor

22 counterpois'd: balanced, reckoned equal

25 laying aboard: grappling with

29 George; cf. n.

30 Rate me: set my ransom

35 Water; cf. n. 